PRINCIPAL’S Message Dear Parents and Guardians, Welcome to the new Autumn Term at Uppingham Community College. Once again, it has been a busy start to the year – beginning with excellent GCSE results for the Year 11, 10 and 9 students at the college. We remain significantly above the national average in many areas and this year increased our results to 84% with 5 or more GCSEs and 65% including English and Maths. Maths in particular performed exceptionally well with 81% of the students gaining a Grade C or better. Also all the vocational students passed their courses and all students have gone on to A Level college courses or apprenticeships of their choice. So well done to Year 11 2013. They will return to collect their certificates and prizes in November. Year 7 have settled in well and it is a very full year group. We welcome several new staff this year – Mrs Cooley, Head of Maths, Mr Cowley, Lead Practitioner in Maths and Mr Jones, teacher of Maths. Miss Craven and Miss Hodgson both join the PE department and Ms Maloney is a new English teacher. Ms Hirst joins the IT and Business Studies team and Mr Rhodes is the new Head of Year 8. There have been a number of individual outstanding achievements over the holidays, some of which are mentioned in this newsletter. Particular congratulations should go to the PE staff and all the students who contributed to the sports fixtures last year as UCC is the Melton and Rutland Varsity Champion as we were top of the league. There are several very important pieces of information in the documents which accompany this letter and I would be grateful if you could read these carefully. We currently have one vacancy for a parent governor. If you are interested in standing as a governor I would be grateful if you could contact Mr G Thompson the Chair of Governors, as we have found that a meeting to discuss the expectations of a governor in a secondary academy is extremely helpful. You could contact Mr Thompson via [email protected]. sch.uk or a letter addressed to him sent into school. I wish all our students and yourselves a successful and exciting term. Regards Jan Turner IN TERM ABSENCES We ask parents to make every effort to avoid disruption to their children’s education through term-time absence. However, we recognise that sometimes there are exceptional circumstances which necessitate the removal of your child from school during term-time. Requests for holiday absence do not normally fall into that category. The Keeping of Pupil Regulations Act 2006 took away the right of parents to remove their children for family holiday during term time other than in exceptional circumstances. All absences, other than illness, must be requested PRIOR to the date of the absence and will be considered by the Principal. The form, to be completed by Parents/Guardians and returned to Student Services at least 10 days prior to the requested period of absence, can be collected by students from Student Services. Warning: A fixed penalty notice may be issued by the local Authority if you choose to take unauthorised term time holiday. Each parent may be liable to a penalty of £60 if paid within 21 days and £120 if paid between 22- 28 days for each child registered at the College. Uppingham Community College A Specialist Technology Academy Newsletter: September 2013 NEW HEAD GIRL AND HEAD BOY: REBECCA SALT AND ANGUS NICHOLS